


Shiver

by glim



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Community: summerpornathon, Established Relationship, M/M, Medical Kink, Sickfic, Team Gluttony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-30
Updated: 2011-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-22 00:23:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Bradley has a cold, but it's Colin who makes him shiver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shiver

**Author's Note:**

> Significantly revised and expanded version of a ficlet written for summerpornathon's kinkme_merlin challenge to fill the prompt "RPF, Bradley/Colin; Sick Bradley and Naughty Nurse Colin. Bradley has a bit of a cold filming and Colin is dying to take him back to the hotel and play doctor."

As soon as they enter the hotel lift, Bradley slumps back against the wall and lets out a tired groan. "Do you know what I think?"

"Never." Colin glances over to Bradley just in time catch the moment where he slides to the right, tucking himself into the corner, and closes his eyes. "But I have a feeling I’m going to know this thought really soon."

"I think that it's not really Wednesday. No, it _is_. But the sort where you're trapped in a week of endless Wednesdays, with no weekend in sight." His eyes open again when Colin laughs and a pout pulls down the corners of his mouth until Colin's standing next to him, close enough that their shoulders and hips touch.

That's really all it takes--two points of contact, warm and subtle--to get Colin to smile in apology. If he leaned slightly to the side, slipped his hand a little to the left, he could brush his fingers against Bradley's hand. He holds back, though, waiting for another moment, one more like the small groan and brief closed-eye moment from a minute ago, rather than this pouting one. "Right, yeah, we've had some long days already. And some long nights on set, too."

Bradley groans his agreement and rests his head back against the wall of the lift. When they reach their floor, he pulls himself away from the wall like it's some great effort. "Hey, film and tea? Come to mine?"

"Hm. You'll fall asleep during the film and I don't drink tea."

"You--" There's a huff, a brief cough, and Bradley turns away from Colin to another cough with his fist. "Ugh. Well. I need tea. And we can… I don't know. Watch telly? Ridiculous foreign game shows?"

Usually, at this point in their it's-been-an-absurdly-long-day conversation, Colin would make a joke about how Bradley's greatest ambition is to become half of an old married couple. But tonight, Bradley looks a little too all over to be teased and there's something about the tiredness in his eyes when he turns back to Colin that stirs a different kind of fondness inside Colin. Relishing that sensation, too, Colin skims his knuckles against the back of Bradley's hand. "Sure, telly. You doing all right?"

"What? Yeah. Sort of shattered."

"Yeah?" Colin brushes his hand against Bradley's again and keeps the gesture small, private and gentle. He follows Bradley into his hotel room, and once in there, he reaches up to cup his hand against Bradley's cheek. "How tired?"

Bradley frowns, winces when he swallows, and gives Colin a curious look. "You. Are being oddly affectionate."

"As opposed to?"

"Generally? Odd."

"I'm keeping things interesting for you."

Bradley shakes his head and gets ready for a retort, but a yawn catches him off guard and changes the expression on his face to one of sleepy confusion. "Okay, right. Shower, tea, and I'm going to fall asleep on top of you. Should prove most interesting," Bradley mutters in that self-deprecating way he has and rubs at one eye with the heel of his hand.

"That was your plan all along, wasn't it? Ensnare me with this talk of films and telly-watching, but you're really going to sprawl out on me, aren't you?"

"Um."

"It's fine," Colin murmurs. It's more than fine, really, but he keeps that to himself, and only when Bradley's dozed off, one arm flung over Colin's chest and face tucked in against Colin's shoulder, does he stroke Bradley's hair and bask a little at how open, how defenseless Bradley is like this.

+

At breakfast the next morning, Bradley dumps an inordinate amount of honey and lemon into his cup of tea, grimaces at his plate of eggs and toast, and at Colin. "I sound awful. Do I sound awful? Oh god."

"You sound fine." Colin has oatmeal and fruit that morning, but he's left off paying attention to any of it to watch Bradley direct his glare at what's probably a cloyingly sweet cup of lemon tea. "But, y'know, a little... groggy?"

Bradley sighs and the sound is lower and deeper than it was last night, low enough and deep enough to go right through Colin with a sensation that feels as if it curls low and deep inside him.

+

The day turns out to be cool and overcast, with enough drizzle in the air to soak through clothes and costumes but not enough to cancel filming in the courtyard.

Bradley looks all right--tired and damp, but all right--when Colin arrives to shoot a few scenes with him. And while they're shooting, while Merlin's having a serious discussion with Arthur about the current state of the kingdom, Colin can ignore Bradley.

But when they cut and the camera stops, all Colin can notice is Bradley.

Bradley, and the way he turns aside to muffle a cough into his shoulder or to clear his throat, and the faint flush that comes over his face when somebody asks if he's all right and when he tries to shrug the question off, the quiet, rough-voiced apology he makes when he has to take a step away from having his hair and make-up retouched to rub at his nose and ask for tissues.

The more he notices, the more the warmth inside Colin curls and swells into something that is both arousal and affection.

+

The sensation's a little new and different; Colin's felt it before, with other partners, but as he does with so many other aspects of Colin, Bradley draws it out of him so much more strongly than anyone else has ever done.

Back in his trailer during a break, Colin runs through the moments he was watching Bradley on set and smiles to feel that sensation spread through him all over again.

Part of it is fondness and the desire to tease Bradley, to ask him how he's managed to catch a cold when nobody else on set is even sniffling, to remind him how he'll have to redo dialogue or else Arthur will sound like he's brought the plague to Camelot.

Most of it, however, is plain desire. The slow, sweet kind, that starts off as a flicker of warmth in Colin's tummy and seeps through his body, to his fingers and toes, the kind that won't dissipate unless he can do something about it.

What would he do, if he had Bradley here with him, stretched out on the makeshift bed in his trailer, his skin warm, maybe flushed a little, bare feet brushing against Colin's as they curl into each other? He's not entirely sure, though he has a thought, and the thought of having his hands on Bradley and feeling the flush of his skin and tremble of his body might be enough.

Colin skims a hand down his chest and strokes his stomach, gently, like Bradley sometimes does, and thinks maybe he can work this out of himself, this warmth and desire and wanting.

+

At the end of the day, however, it's Bradley's voice that does it for Colin.

The low, rough sound of his voice, the tiny, stuffy catch at the back of his words, the way it gets even deeper toward the end of filming. If he hadn't sounded like that, Colin thinks, perhaps, he might've been able to resist. He might've been able to bring himself off, collecting all of Bradley's small, half-hidden moments of vulnerability, thinking of how he'd find Bradley's sensitive spots and examine them all.

But, no, once he hears Bradley's hoarse, throaty voice and sees the tired flicker of vulnerability in his eyes, Colin's lost.

He doesn't realize, not until the very end of the day, when he drops down to sit next to Bradley on the set for Gaius's rooms. They're both still in costume, Bradley in Arthur's thin white tunic and breeches, and Colin in Merlin's usual outfit.

"You glad your week of the eternal Wednesday's finally through? Weekend's finally in sight tomorrow."

Bradley's rubs both hands over his face and nods. "Oh, god, am I ever. Could've sworn the time loop snagged me again around two o'clock."

Colin tries for a laugh, but his own voice catches in his throat at the sound of Bradley's. The resistance he's been building up so carefully all afternoon slips away like water through his fingers, he feels it going and going as Bradley talks and it's gone when Bradley clears his throat and rubs at his face again.

"Too bad we don't actually have a court physician." Bradley blinks around the set and at Colin; he shakes his head when Colin starts to ask if he needs anything. "M'all right. Seriously ready to end the day."

"Meet me at my trailer? Wait, no, I'll come to yours. And I'll take you back to the hotel, and look after you a little."

"Col, no. You're going all--" Bradley shrugs. "Fussy."

"Oh. If you don't--"

"--no, that's not it." Bradley gives him another blinkish look and a smile that's all soft around the edges. "You don't have to."

"You'd let me, though? See how you're doing?" They don't go in much for affection in public, especially on set, but Colin touches Bradley on the shoulder and rests the back of his hand briefly against Bradley's cheek. "Just to make sure you're all right?"

The smile stays on Bradley's face and he bumps his knee against Colin's underneath the table. "Do you... do you want to play doctor?"

The flush that rises up over Colin's face is probably more of an answer than Bradley needs and his smile goes from soft and sleepy to pleased and knowing.

+

"Oh." Seated at the edge of his hotel room bed, freshly showered and clad in a tee shirt and boxers, Bradley peers up at Colin and sniffles a little. "You really _do_ want to."

"I. Um. Well, if it's, it's not too weird?" Colin reaches down to stroke Bradley's hair, right behind his left ear, and keeps on petting when Bradley leans into his touch.

"More unexpected than weird, I suppose. So far."

Colin strokes Bradley's hair some more and pets the side of his neck to feel the warm beat of his pulse beneath his skin. He's more amenable now that they're off set and hopefully more likely to open himself up to Colin than he had been to anyone else earlier in the day. "Let me look after you, all right? Promise I'll help you feel better."

Maybe it's the note of desperation in Colin's voice, or maybe it's the few things arrayed on the bed, that gives Bradley pause.

He slides his hands up Colin's sides, past the waist of his jeans and under his green tee shirt, and rests the tips of his fingers against Colin's skin. "All right, yeah," he says softly, then, slipping his hands back down, he turns to his shoulder with a few, brief coughs. "I've, um, been feeling sort of off all day. I think I've come down with something."

Relief and arousal flood through Colin, leaving his breath shaky, and he touches the side of Bradley's face. "Hm, what sort of something?

"Nothing serious, only a sore throat, headache. Some coughing and sneezing."

Colin makes another thoughtful sound and nudges Bradley's head to one side and to the other, to see more closely how the cold has made his eyes tired and a little watery. "You sound congested."

"Only a bit," Bradley retorts and some of the defensiveness that appeared in his replies when asked on set if he felt all right is back, followed by a bashfulness that he hadn't shown at all on set.

"Let me get a closer look at you."

Bradley nods, not with reluctance, but with shyness, his head ducked down away from Colin and his mussed blond hair falling into his eyes.

Colin's breath catches; he licks his lips, slow and deliberate, and swallows back the rising urge to tell Bradley how badly he's been wanting this. How badly he's been wanting him all day at work. If he could, he'd give Bradley a full examination, peer into his eyes and nose and ears, find all the delicate, vulnerable places on his body and touch them, press his lips to them and breathe over them lightly enough that he'd make Bradley shiver.

As it is, after one slightly guilty visit to Health & Safety, where he mumbled something about needing emergency props for the physician's assistant, Colin only has a few things. A stethoscope, a few tongue depressors, a thermometer, and a box of tissues.

It's not much, but he's certain he can still made Bradley shiver.

In one slightly less guilty moment, Colin runs his hand over the jumble of medical paraphernalia on the bed, selects a tongue depressor, and settles himself in Bradley's lap.

"Have you been feeling poorly all day?" Colin asks, rolling his hips so that the half-hard state of his cock reveals how he's been feeling all day.

"Not really, I think it's nothing to--" Bradley stops when his eyes meet Colin's and the smile that curves, brief and knowing, at the corner of his mouth tells Colin that Bradley's seen the flicker of neediness on Colin's face. "I think it's a slight cold, but..."

"Hm." Colin brushes of his thumb over Bradley's lips and leans down to kiss him when he yields to the examination. One touch of his lips to Bradley's, another firmer touch to the corner of his mouth, and Colin darts his tongue out to part Bradley's lips. "There, good."

He kisses Bradley once more before drawing away and leaving Bradley's mouth damp, pink, and pliant. A touch to his chin has Bradley opening his mouth wider and there's only a slight furrow on his brow as Colin uses the tongue depressor to check his throat.

"That does look a bit sore," Colin murmurs. Part of him is thinking how, later on, he'll make Bradley a cup of tea or mix him up some hot medicine, but a greater part of him is marveling at how pliant Bradley really is for him, and how he's letting Colin not only examine him, but unfold him, see past his protests and insecurities and uncertainties. "Good boy. Now, let's get you out of that shirt."

Bradley makes a surprised noise at the back of his throat, coughs, and when he says "Colin" his voice comes out low and rough.

Just for that, for getting Colin harder and more needy with only sound of his voice, Colin wriggles about in Bradley's lap until he feels the rise of Bradley's erection against his jeans. Though Colin's dressed, Bradley's down to his boxer briefs and his skin is flushed and warm wherever Colin touches him and Colin can feel the heat of Bradley's body through his clothes. It radiates like lust, like fever and arousal and all the warm things bundled tight inside Colin that threaten to spiral out.

"That's better. Breathe for me, in and out." Colin ignores the gasp Bradley gives at the cold of the stethoscope against his bare chest, and the louder, sharper one he gives when the disk brushes over his nipple.

Bradley glances at him and glances away, suddenly shy again. He aims a cough over his shoulder, away from Colin, and shivers again when Colin touches his bare chest. The next shiver he gives is probably for real; Colin takes pity on him and kisses his cheek.

It's so difficult to take this slowly; he really has been waiting all day. He's been watching Bradley from the corner of his eye, the whole time wanting nothing more than to have all Bradley's vulnerable moments to himself.

Colin pulls them in one by one now: he touches Bradley's face again, asking if he feels feverish or if his head aches, the whole time stroking along his cheek and the side of his neck to coax another shiver from Bradley.

"Maybe I ought to warm you up a little." Colin's hands skirt over Bradley's chest and ribcage, only making him shiver again, and he dips his head down to touch his forehead to Bradley's.

"Maybe? Please?" Bradley asks and Colin can hear how he lets that neediness into his voice now, and how he yearns in closer to Colin. "More?"

Colin smiles into Bradley's shoulder and drops a kiss to the point. The warmth of his skin matches the warmth of Colin's mouth and, unlike holding himself back, it's so, so easy to abandon himself to that warmth. Colin kisses back up to Bradley's neck, smiling into the curve, and wraps an arm around Bradley to feel every trembling second of his reaction.

"You're not bad at this. Quite, ah, professional." Bradley returns the hug that Colin's giving him so their chests are pressed right up against each other and when his breath stutters--from a gasp or a cough or a combination of both--Colin feels it go right through Bradley.

"You'll feel better if you lie down for the rest. I do need to be thorough."

Bradley whimpers when Colin moves and he's a little sorry when he slips from Bradley's lap to nudge Bradley to lie down on the bed. Relinquishing that closeness, however, does have the benefit of being able to see Bradley spread out on the bedsheets, skin flushed and eyes glassy with arousal. His cock strains up against the thin blue cotton of his boxers and Colin loves how hard he is already, how needy he looks and how he sighs when Colin pulls off his shirt.

He leaves his jeans on, though, a layer of protection against his own need and vulnerability, and climbs back onto the bed so he can start at Bradley's shoulders again. Colin kisses and nuzzles against Bradley's skin, promising again to keep him warm, and presses his mouth gently to the center of Bradley's chest when he coughs.

When he shivers, body trembling at the ticklish touch of Colin's lips on his stomach, Colin smiles and nuzzles against Bradley some more.

"Do you feel warm enough now?" Skimming the tip of his nose along the line of Bradley's erection, Colin rests a hand at Bradley's hip. "Almost? You feel so warm to me."

"Al-almost..." Bradley's breath stutters again, but it's definitely the needy, gaspy kind of stuttering breath, the sort that he'd let snag right in his chest if he didn't have a little cold.

Colin kisses his stomach and noses along the waistband of his shorts, then kisses the tip of cock through the material. Bradley's hips arch up off the bed, first in a short jerk, then in a slow arc that Colin curves to meet. He tugs Bradley's shorts off his body and bends to mouth along the length of his cock, breathing in the scent of sweat and clean skin.

He brings Bradley off with his hands and mouth, waits until he groans with relief and desire and utter pleasure, and only then draws away to look how Bradley's panting out his orgasm.

"Come here," Bradley says, his words even more roughed up, and smiles at the hitch in Colin's breath at the sound of his voice, "come here and make sure I stay warm."

He tugs Colin down next to him and they both do a very clumsy job of getting Colin out of his jeans. "There, now I'll take care of you."

And he does, his lips at Colin's ear to murmur soft, hoarse words and his hand at Colin's cock, fingers moving slow and steady at first, then rougher and more urgent when Colin tries to press himself closer and closer to Bradley.

His climax comes over him with a surge of pleasure and exhilaration that, having been building up all day, now reaches down to the tips of his fingers and toes.

+

Later on, once he's cleaned them both up and plied Bradley with tissues and hot lemon drink, Colin leans back against the pillows and gathers Bradley into his arms.

"You really liked that." Bradley's giving his chest aimless little strokes. He sounds tired, a little stuffy, and fond.

The combination brings back remnants of the melting, blissed out feeling of his orgasm back and Colin hums his agreement. "Consider my buttons pressed. Next time, I think, you should let me take your temperature."

Bradley stiffens at the touch of Colin's hand at his hip, then curls in closer. "We'll see how my cold is tomorrow."


End file.
